DISCLAIMER I DO NOT OWN KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN

Aliens are real. Same goes for anything of the supernatural. Monsters, ghosts, and everything of the sorts was real. Hayato was convinced of that fact.

Humans have lived on Earth for only a few million years. Billions of years of evolution in play. Roughly 65 percent of it still left unexplored. The universe beyond the atmosphere is just the same. Humans are not the center of everything. To ignore the possibility of more is ignorance at its finest.

Stories and old tales have a root. There's a reason why humans continue to tell such imaginative tales. All evidence points to the existence of more than humans could not begin to imagine. Beyond the scientific limitations currently in place.

Being a research based man that he was, Hayato wanted to try looking for more sources. Since the book he got was a magazine there had to be information at a bookstore. So he went out for the first time alone. He did get a few chances when training with Shamal but this time was different. Now this was purely on his own choice to go explore.

He made sure that he had the hotel room key and Haru's card before leaving. He considered leaving Uri behind. The cat had different ideas following him closely. Not wanting to risk more scratches from her, he really didn't have a say in bringing her.

Ricco with Haru beside him felt like he had one grounding spot. That time they went shopping he focused all of his attention onto her. And she had a clear sense of direction. Though he hated being here, by her side he at least knew that he wasn't going to get lost. If anything happened, he could rely on her to deal with it.

When shopping for groceries during his training, he had a step by step process to follow. Go to the store, buy what was needed, head back. Today he was by himself with no clear plan. He kept his hood up the entire time as it was the only way he reminded himself of her. He really hated being in Ricco alone.

It took a bit of wandering around until he found a place that sold books. Took even longer to find the books that he wanted. He didn't want to ask the store's employees for help. Most of the ones he did find were childish in appearance. Writing like anyone wanting to research more was a no more than a stupid kid unable to pay attention unless there was a rainbow colour scheme every page. Which didn't make sense considering that it should be adults that were the ones performing studies to find these creatures. Stupid kids wouldn't know the difference between a turtle and a kappa.

"Um sir?" He raised his head from the book. "I'm sorry to disturb you but pets aren't allowed in here."

He followed their finger pointing to Uri sleeping under his chair. They didn't stop him when he entered and she wasn't causing any problems. In Povero having a pet or any sort of animal nearby was a lot safer than being alone.

"Why not?"

"Huh? Oh well uh we just don't want anything to get damaged or have a customer get an allergic reaction to it. Store policy, sorry. We can still ring that book up for you if you'd like." He could tell that he made the employee slightly uncomfortable with his question.

"Alright then." He stood up to follow them over to the cash register. Uri didn't need instructions from him. Half asleep she clawed her way up to continue sleeping on his shoulder.

Book in hand, he exited out of the store. When the employee thanked him for the purchase, it was a reminder that he never brought something for himself. Money was spent on necessities. This was something he owned. He spent nearly his whole life worrying over if he could afford to eat for a day. It was almost liberating to own something purely for entertainment.

The money wasn't entirely his though. None of it was. In reality the card that gave him the ability to spend as much as he wanted was a piece of plastic that added on to his debt to the devil. Or as she claimed a worker to the devil. He was merely an object that she dangled money in front of in order to do her dirty work.

That is what he would say over a month ago. Now? He wasn't so sure. Yes his debt was still piling up, especially after paying Uri's vet bills and food. Yet his situation could have been a lot worse. He's only heard rumors of the Vongola. After having a chance to work with Haru he realized that they weren't the dirty people gossiped about. Things like the rings made it so everything and everyone had order. It didn't look easy to break that system. So far he hadn't done anything he regretted which was a plus.

Both Shamal and Haru were mafiosi who could have walked all over him but didn't. He didn't even feel like he was with murders most of the time. Just richer, sometimes stuck up, skilled people. Quite frankly it gave him some room to breathe after living the same way for so long. These days his body felt in the best condition. Maybe that was due to the soft bed and fresh food.

Speaking of which, he was starting to get hungry. Normally he would ignore it but he could hear both of their voices scolding him if he skipped a meal. Again. After several warnings.

"Should we eat, Uri?" The cat gave a small meow to agree. Sometimes it was scary how smart his pet was.

Around him was mainly stores, some of them were clearly for food. It was strange to see people openly selling food through little booths on the side of the road. Or even serving customers outside on little desks and tables. Wouldn't it attract bugs to the food? Not to mention it was way easier to dine and dash if servers were inside most of the time that they can't watch every customer.

Despite knowing that he should 'try new things', he was still uncomfortable in Ricco. Him getting kicked out of a bookstore showed that he wasn't fully ready to understand the social norms here. So he went to the most basic, straightforward store that he found. A corner convenient store.

Quickly he went in, brought some plastic wrapped sandwiches, canned cat food, and got out. He didn't give much thought to the flavour or anything else about it. There's only much people can do to a convenient store sandwich that it was probably better than what he ate on a regular basis back home. The employees didn't even bother to kick him out because of Uri since he was in and out fast. They looked pretty done with their job anyways.

Hayato sat on a random bench in a nearby park. He gave Uri her food first before eating his. When that was done he started reading some of his new book. Funny that if anyone looked at him now they would never guess how he got his money. Or will do to be clear.

Even reading didn't distract him from what Haru had requested of him. He wonders who is target was. She didn't seem too glad that she had to attend a meeting showing Hayato that this wasn't planned. Was it going to be about his target? She was devoted to Decimo it wouldn't be surprising if he was going to be indirectly helping him.

Just who was Decimo anyways? Better question was who was Haru?

Hayato watched as Uri suddenly stood up. Her fur stood on end. She hissed loudly before jumping away from him.

"Uri?" A white mink jumped in front of her. It growled, baring teeth at her. Hayato stood up when he saw someone else approaching the mink.

"Shishi you find something interesting, Mink?" The boy held his hands behind his head. He had shaggy bangs that covered his eyes with a silver crown-like accessory hanging onto his head.

Wind blew past Hayato. The boy gave off a creepy vibe. "You should learn to control your animal, peasant."

"Who are you calling a peasant?!" He's been called a lot of derogatory terms before. Who calls random people peasants though?! Then there was his stupid crown. A royalty complex?

"Peasants are peasants. Low class pets match you. A stray and a Povero obvious at first glance. Can you deny that?" He clicked his tongue. The boy was able to tell both of their statuses. He wasn't the usual Ricco that loved to look down on everyone. He was smart enough to know exactly who he could pick on. In this case it was Hayato and Uri.

"As if your mink is any better. Uri probably thought it was a rat."

"Maybe you should feed it something proper so that it doesn't hallucinate." He was going to rebuttal when he heard the boy's pocket ding. He took out a phone, skimming it quickly.

Hayato's eyes widened seeing the pure red ring on his finger. Red ring. 'Rule four: Do not engage with Storm branch members.' His heart beat started rising. The boy frowned as he pocketed his phone. "No fun. Come on Mink; Lussuria is calling us back."

He was leaving. Good. As long as Hayato stopped provoking him then they could part without drawing too much attention to him. "Come on Uri. We should go too."

He tried to make no sudden movements picking up his cat. With Uri secured he started to talk away. The more distance he put in between the two the better.

"Oy wait a minute. I didn't catch your name. Mine's Belphegor."

"I don't have to tell you that."

"Come on there's no harm in learning your name. How about I tell you a tip to keeping your animal tame? From one pet owner to another?" Hayato froze. He slowly turned back to face him.

"S-sure." Belphegor approached him with Mink around his shoulders. His cheshire grin widening.

"Animals are sensitive to smell." He placed a firm hand on Hayato's shoulder, leaning in. "And you reek of gunpowder."

Hayato immediately slapped his hand away. He wasn't sure how but this man was onto him. He needed to get away. Right now.

He set off a smoke bomb to cover his tracks, taking off. A few people did scream in confusion. In the panic there were many people that he bumped into. Hopefully that was the same for the Storm man.

After running a fair distance, he assumed that he was safe. He snuck into an alleyway to see if the man managed to follow him. There was no sign of him. He let out a sigh of relief, pressing his back to the wall.

Should he go back to the hotel now? That would be the safest bet. He could tell Haru about the man later. She'll figure out what happens next for him. Luckily he got a good look at him and his assumed real name so she should be able to know who he is. He didn't get to see how many dashes were on his ring. He could only hope he wasn't high ranking. That would make it harder on Haru to hide everything.

A chill ran down his spine. It was the same as Shamal. A murderous intent. An incredibly strong one too. Something silver flashed in his vision causing him to freeze. He heard something stab into the wall next to his ear. Turning his head a little he found an oddly shaped knife right beside him.

"Found ya." Belphegor leisurely walked towards him from the opposite direction he left him. He spun another knife in between his fingers as he approached him.

"I don't mean any harm." Hayato tried to reason.

"Yeah? Maybe I do. Who are you? What family do you work for?"

"I'm... Independent."

"You sure about that? Sounds like you're a bit hesitant."

"I'm sure. There's no one I'm working with."

"So why did you run?" Belphegor didn't give him any room to breath between questions.

"I- I saw your ring. You're with the Vongola's Storm branch. I know better than to mess with you."

The man brought his ring up. "Vongola's Storm branch? Been a while since I heard people call us that. Means you're either stupid or well informed."

Hayato knew that he was going to be no match for the man. This wasn't like his training with Haru. If he messed up anything it would actually cause him his life. He already exposed that he had weapons so the only thing he could do was hope that he was given mercy. For now, he had to at least show that he didn't have any relation to Haru.

"There's hardly anyone that doesn't know about the Vongola around here. I guess you can say I'm well informed. You're pretty amazing though. Finding me out from smell alone is impressive itself." He was trying to flatter him.

Hayato looked at Uri growling upwards. He could see very faintly white fur dodging on the small ledges of the building around them. It was probably his pet that allowed him to catch up so quickly. If he could get rid of that thing, then he had a better chance of escaping without being followed.

While scanning the area he saw something briefly in the air. There was a wire coming out the end of the knife. He would have missed it if it wasn't familiar with thin items aiming for him. These were the same size as Haru's needles. Given time using both knives and wires can help him create a field that only the user could work in. Hayato may be able to see it but it wouldn't work in his favour with vision alone.

"If I didn't know any better I would believe you. Your skills are unpolished, still call us the Storm branch and have such a rough cat." Belphegor took a step forward. Hayato tried to back up to no avail.

"Too bad for you, I'm not stupid." Three more knives stabbed into the wall creating a square around him.

Hayato was becoming a caged animal here. He knew that Haru was able to learn about him in a few minutes, so this man would probably be able to do the same. Every second he spent with him lowered the chances of escaping. To add on, Haru's weapons weren't meant to kill in the long run. Knives were completely different.

He threw a few sticks up towards Mink. Belphegor saw his target being his pet that he threw the exact same amount to cut the dynamite before it reached it. That's what Hayato was hoping for as he ducked between the knives in the wall to grab at the wires. He pulled them out of the wall fast enough that the explosion served as another cover. It didn't hit Mink but it startled it enough to run.

Hayato was following after it. He had to constantly bump into walls to give him enough force to avoid Belphegor's flying knives. He did throw the occasional dynamite back to give him some space when needed. His main aim was in keeping away and taking out Mink.

At the same time, he used to knives he took to cut open a few sticks. He studied dynamite enough to know the makeup of the stick. That's why he knew that there was a slight space where the gunpowder was located. By cutting open the sticks he was able to transfer some gunpowder into that space. It was a bit of a tedious process while running that he used multiple sticks little by little. Thus he was throwing weaker dynamite at Belphegor without having to worry about his own back.

Dynamite was annoying like that. The smallest of explosions would throw any one enough just for a second. And when Belphegor was chasing after him and protecting his pet he couldn't afford to be taking hits like that so freely.

Now that Hayato managed to fill a few up he used the wires at the ends of the knives to loosely wrap up the holes he made. Only one of the wires was taunt telling him that even with this distance Belphegor had saved one line to follow him the distance. He must have severed the other wires to avoid Hayato catching on to the possibility of the wires. It helped a lot that he was looking down on the Povero boy.

He had no idea how these roughly made increased gunpowder dynamite sticks would turn out. He needed one clear moment to let him get a shot in. Luckily he wasn't alone.

Above him he heard a loud hissing. He almost tripped watching Uri jump at Mink. The two creatures were engaged in their own chase where Uri was quickly gaining speed. To help out Hayato exploded one normal stick upwards in front of Mink. The cat took advantage of that hesitation in its run to slash down its back.

Mink was probably more trained but Uri was not stupid. It survived in these alleys by itself. The small ledges and random cracks were all things she was well adjusted to. Paired with her being use to Hayato's use of dynamite, she wasn't startled by the loud noise and smoke. She saw it as clearly asshe did her owner. Both Mink and Belphegor's attention was on Hayato which gave her the space to slip through to attack.

Hayato heard Belphegor clicked his tongue behind him. It was all the sign he needed to show that his attention was temporarily off of him. He lit his new type of dynamite at him with more force than before.

Belphegor threw knives at the sticks so that they wouldn't get close. However, due to the changes made that only helped Hayato. The explosion was double the size of a normal stick that both were pushed in opposite directions. Because Belphegor wasn't expecting that trick he had essential ran straight first into the explosion only to be pushed back by the sheer force.

Hayato looked ahead. He kept running hearing Uri's paws clawing close behind. Now that Mink was no longer following him and Belphegor separated from him they had a chance to escape. If he could make it out of this alleys, then he'll be in open where neither of them could attack. If he could give one slip, then he'll be home free.

Just a bit more!

Suddenly Hayato received a heavy jab to the stomach. All the air was knocked out of him. He didn't get a chance to fight back when he was hit on the back of his neck. He lost consciousness falling flat on the floor.

The three of arrivals were in complete confusion of the silver hair boy that popped out of nowhere. They had only run up to check out the sounds of explosives. Out of habit when Hayato ran at them with full fear the oldest and most colouful man had knocked him out. They were going to leave him when the only girl* of the group found Mink crawling out.

They walked a bit into the alley way to find their fellow Storm member rushing out. He was more than pleased to find these three here. "Ushishi Nice timing."

"Maa Bel-chan, who's the boy?" The most colourful man of the bunch asked.

"Next time ask that before you knock him, Lussuria."

"You can't blame me Nat-chan. He charged right at me." Natsuki bent down to examine him. Before she could touch him Uri ran out in front. Leviathan, the final male of the group, grabbed her by the scruff in a way that her claws wouldn't hurt him.

"What's with this raggy looking cat?"

"Who knows? Boy carries an abundant amount of dynamite on him. Thought he would be an interesting person. He reacted violently to my ring so he at least knows who we are. Do you know who he is, Hime?"

Natsuki, who Bel called Hime, grabbed his face. "Looks like a Povero with his lack of care. He seems familiar though. Did you catch what family he's in?"

"Said he's independent. I wouldn't buy it. No way there's this skilled of a hitman roaming around without Vongola knowing. Changed his weapon while in fight to create a huge explosion to put distance between us. He's not normal."

"To land a hit on our Bel-chan says a lot." Lussuria took a handkerchief out of his pocket to pat down the blood from the bruise on his face.

"This is nothing." Belphegor brushed the man aside to go pick up Mink. "So should we bring him back to HQ? Boss and the commanders are suppose to be done soon."

"Risky move if we don't know who he is."

"Found something." Natsuki stood back up with Hayato's wallet in hand. Inside it were only two notable items. A hotel room key and a credit card.

She took out the credit card in hopes to identify him. Instead she saw a name that they were all familiar with. Belphegor took the card out of her hands, snickering. "Here I thought returning to Ripartizione would be boring. Looks like we should have a chat with our Cloud commander."

A/N: In this chapter you'll notice there's a character named Natsuki with Varia. She's an OC of mine from my other KHR story. You don't have to know about her since she's a pretty minor character here but I thought I would explain a bit so there's no confusion. All you need to know is that she is a Varia officer (still lower than Mammon, Squalo and Xanxus in this story) and she gets along well with Haru. If anything needs clarifying don't be afraid to ask :).